Thursday, 15 December 2016

Profanatism - Hereticon

PROFANATISM - Hereticon (PUTRID CULT CD 2016)

“Hereticon” is a debut full
album from Profanatism. I have to be honest, the previous recordings of this
Polish black metal project were fine, I did enjoy them and if I cannot say that
they were something exceptional I will say they were solid and interesting at
least. Recently I’ve got this debut album and I have to say that this may be my
least favourite recording from Profanatism and I did not like it so much. I actually
had a hard time to get into its atmosphere and find anything what would really
impress me and make me interested. It’s one of those albums, which you play,
you try to like it, but at the same time you’re thinking that it’s mediocre,
it’s also dull sometimes and you honestly want to change the music for
something better. You simply know that this one will not work and the chemistry
is not there.

The biggest problem with “Hereticon”,
which I had, was that not only it sounds dull, but I was totally careless about
the music. It’s not a typical straight forward black metal, it’s also not
traditionally sounding black metal. The riffing here is quite weird, full of strange
(dis)harmonies, I guess you can say that instead of playing proper riffs that
would bring aggression and cold aura, Profanatism comes with something
completely opposite and it’s hard to figure out what is their idea for the
music. Weird harmonies, sick sounding parts… I have no idea how can I describe
this stuff. The atmosphere is quite ritualistic, sure, it’s dark and grim, but
from the strictly musical point of view “Hereticon” doesn’t do anything for me.
I get irritated with all these dissonant riffs and lack of inconsistence… and
on top of all, there are these insanely croaked and screamed vocals, whose
arrangements are simply not so good. I can understand it was not easy to get
them right if the music is so discordant and so difficult to listen to… but
that just assures me that this time round Profanation ideas were not quite that
good. I am not saying that “Hereticon” is utter bad or something, I am sure it
will get some good reviews as well (it probably already did). But I have to be
honest and say that I don’t like this album and I rather forced myself to pay
it a reasonable number of times, instead of doing it with pleasure… and well, I
know that this CD will just end up on the shelf, get covered with dust, as I
doubt I will be back to it so soon.

No standout tracks here,
although “Dance With the Serpents” caught my attention a bit, as it reminded me
some parts of Emperor from “Prometheus” LP.